Behind the Boarding Gate: Brady Wilson’s Impact on Aviation Management
Brady Wilson is the poster child for what a college education is all about and how it can catapult one's career and life.
On a spring Saturday in 2022, he walked across the Miller Auditorium stage to receive his degree in airport management and operations, and on Monday he was in the employ of Delta Air Lines at its hub in Atlanta, Ga.
That was something he kind of imagined would happen when he graduated in 2018 from Clarkston High School in his home Oakland County community about 34 miles northwest of downtown Detroit.
Now part of Delta's three-airport operations in and around "The Big Apple," Wilson says that "aviation has always interested me because it's a complex system that never stops moving. I was once asked whether I would switch to a hotel company, and the answer was 'no.'
"Once a hotel is built," he says, "you can't move it. If you stop making money, you're stuck in the same location. But with an airline and aviation, you can move your planes around your network very easily to adapt to the demand environment."
And "moving planes around" has been his gig from the start. It's called "network planning" in the industry. That's the team "responsible for designing and optimizing" Delta's flight schedules and routes "to maximize profitability and efficiency." In other words, it's why the enterprise is in business.
"We are constantly figuring out where we should fly, when we should fly and what aircraft we should fly," he says.
Relatively soon into his career, Wilson was part of "network planning" at Boston's airport, Reagan Washington International Airport, and Delta's stations in Canada.
"During my time," he says, "we increased our Boston hub to more than 150 departures a day and claimed status as the No. 1 carrier in terms of daily departures and seats. It was all a great learning experience and I had to work closely with other Delta operational units. This is just another example that the aviation industry is never a one-person show but truly a team effort to keep the skies moving."
Wilson says he chose Western because of its reputation in the airline industry and because the Kalamazoo campus was "not too close yet not too far from home." He believes that the paces he was put through during his days at the WMU College of Aviation prepped him well for what he would be facing.
He was part of the college of aviation's "dispatch" team while a student. He served as a teaching assistant for his favorite instructor, faculty specialist Jessica Birnbaum. Highly valued, he says, were the insights he gained in an airport-planning class taught by Stephanie Ward, a professional who worked for an aviation-planning consulting firm.
Wilson was also a member of WMU's chapter of the American Association of Airport Executives, an affiliation that yielded him an internship at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.
"What a great experience it was working for Jessica in her introductory course in aviation for freshmen just starting their college journey at WMU," he says. "I did this for two semesters. It was great to build relationships with faculty and students. In fact, it really got me out of my comfort zone and got me used to working in larger groups."
He values Birnbaum not only for her teaching skills but also for her capabilities as a mentor. "You could always go to her for a quick question or for a second opinion," he says. "She shaped my journey at WMU for the better and helped me get to where I am today. On many a day in my office, I will ask myself, 'What would Mrs. Birnbaum think about this?'"
Following his stint in New England, Wilson found himself on Delta's "Day of the Week Capacity Planning Team." Its mission is to manage the flight schedule on certain days that feature lower demand, such as the actual holidays, along with Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The objective was simple yet tricky -- offer flights that fill up, avoid trips with relatively few passengers, and make certain customers can make their connections. All factors that few airline passengers ever think of.
Four years after his stroll across the Miller stage with degree in hand, Wilson finds himself overseeing Delta's flight schedules at LaGuardia Airport, the John F. Kennedy Airport and the Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey, with the latter being in the news quite a bit during 2025. In all, that amounts to more than 500 flights a day.
"My day-to-day is never the same," he says. "I am responsible for ensuring our schedule remains 'slot compliant' as all three New York City airports require a landing-and-departure slot to access an airport. Another responsibility is ensuring our schedule aligns with the seasonality of each market we fly to." Meaning that Delta's largest planes fly to Florida and the Caribbean in the cold months, and are redirected during the summer to more enjoyable climes.
"The best part of my job," Wilson says, "is knowing that Delta's flight schedules allow people more access to loved ones and connect them to new places around the world. And it's always fun to launch new routes and see your work featured on news broadcasts. Plus, it's even more fun to fly on an inaugural flight you launched."
There was another Delta flight that stuck a landing in his memory tank. That was flying a "brand new 321-NEC (single-engine Airbus airliner)" to the 2025 air extravaganza in Oshkosh, Wis., as part of the airline's centennial celebration. "Flying an almost empty plane to Oshkosh was so unreal," he says.
If there's a career move in Wilson's future, it would be to continue in "network planning" but on an international scale. Another possibility would be to engage in short stints with other Delta departments to gain exposure to other airline functions.
"If there is one thing about the aviation industry that never fails," he says, "it is that nothing stays the same for long. Our industry is always changing and evolving. It's important to stay flexible and evolve with it. It's what makes every day different and always interesting."
And he knows what "Mrs. Birnbaum" would think about that.